The opposite of being distracted is paying attention. Part of paying attention is to have fast forward thinking. Think about what happens if you continue down this road. This applies to every area of our lives. How much wiser we would be to have "Fast Forward" thinking.

 When tempted to chase the money of a "better" job even though it would mean being away from your family more or not being able to go to church... Fast Forward

 When tempted to chase the "American Dream" and put it all on plastic... Fast Forward

 When tempted to shelve your spiritual life .... Fast Forward

 When tempted to do harm to yourself or someone else. Fast Forward

I want to take you to my texts for today.

Prov. 22:3 & Prov. 27:12 both say, "The prudent see danger and take refuge. The simple keep going and suffer for it."

The NLT puts it this way, "A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

And the Message, "A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks; a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered."

The Pope Version says “The prudent fast forwards their thinking and takes action; The dumb just ignores that thought and gets slammed.”

The main thought I want you to capture from this sermon is this: Our direction determines our destination.

You want to head to the Mall of America but you get on I-39 South. You are not getting to the Mall. It doesn't matter how many people you call, it doesn't matter if you have a prayer meeting before you go. You are not getting to the Mall of America by getting on I-39 South. You are going the wrong direction! Direction determines your destination. The proverb says that the prudent see danger, they see they are going the wrong direction and they do something. They take action. They risk embarrassment. They stop and ask for directions, they double check the address in the GPS, they listen to their wife, etc. However, the simple, the dumb, the stupid, the ungodly, keep going. They see danger but they keep going. They believe that if they just keep going they will be okay and get where they want to go. They suffer the consequences.